Adventures in Qwom

 

I figured I'd start a thred on the adventures me and my crew have been having recently in a place Qwom. We are in the middle of playing our 9th-11th game here in Qwom now, and its been one hell of a run.

I have done alot of posting detailing parts of our adventures, and alot of thingsa have happend that I wont re-cap. if your going to follow this thred, you will have to suffer being thrown into the story from where we stand now (the adventure thus far has gone in so many directions that it would be an incrediable task to even begin to explain the lead-up till now).

What I will tell you is that the entire adventure is a sureal mystery that was designed to confuse and delude the players in a way that cuases players to ponder and discuss... The adventure has lead many directions (it is free based- meaning the players drive the direction of the adventure...I do not guide them towards conflict or provide linear story). The adventures here in Qwom have cuased many players to get lost in the twisting lost histories of the land...and here Last night's adventure in the mysterious island land of Qwom.
...

Episode 9:
The party currently at the table consists of A Half-elf Mage (who is from another world. A realm traveler), of 4th level (lawful evil).

A human fighter ex-pirate who has gone through much spiritual evolution towards becoming good (L-N.), though his alignment hasnt switched, and he fights temptation to do the not-so-good things his alignment demans nessary for his success in this adventure. Hater of Kenku, and awarded safe passage through the elvin lands for helping a cleric defeat a local demon.

A fanatical Whemic warrior recently left home to follow the Darkstar (a black star seen only during the day, that the people of Wem fortold of in acient lore that has come to recently return into the sky after 400 years of it missing) becuase his people have teachings that the star will bring honor in battle to those strong enough to follow the path of the star.

A 7ft tall red headed human from the metal mineing city of Fulcrum (military nation) who is also N-E in alignment, and an ex-pirate now doing selective evil deeds in the name of semi-good (weird), and known throughout Qwom by the fey races to be a walking ledgendary fighter that has killed giants.

This adventure has only these 4, as rule of Qwom- a game cant begin without at lest three players. We assembled together last night to adventure. We left off in the mountains of Stonehold, and the party has recently befriended a human civilization that is very tribal and brute, but good aligned for the most part.

The players decided to leave the mountains on a 17 day hike back to the forest lands to seek out the aceint mongrell man Mage named Hadabra (who they had killed months prior to now). he is 9th level and very angry over his violent death...

They now decided to travel from the moutains to the woodlands of Lhost...

To be continued at my own pace, when I have a moment-

(I will be posting here when ever I wish...this thred is reseved to be the cronicals of Qwom, for my own needs, and the reading pleasure of any geek who gives a fig)...

The party began the cross mountain hike. Lemmie tell you now, the mountains of stonehold are no place for those without mountain climbing ability, and these fools have none...A weak female mage, 2 lumbersom fighters gifted in hacking n slashing not the art of scaling savage mountains, and a Wemic who is best suited for woodland hunting not catting around the stone face cliffs of the dwarven lands.

No man has ever written of Stonehold, the human race has no history of ever meeting a dwarf or of mountains in Qwom. The party is looking for answers from the powerful freek named Hadabra (one who was important to the first days of Qwom, but now rots in a city of gold, over a hoard of old books).

the last meeting with this creature led the party into killing the mongrell man, and allowing a recently ressurected mage to steal Hadabra's magics (the newly revived mage came back with no spells memorized, and no library to research from, she needed to see her acient friend- Hadabra)

Since then, the ressurected mage has split paths with them, fully armed with all spells upto 6th level, and able to funtion at almost half her old power...The party killed the mongrell man, using an anti-magic shell, and left him for dead. The mongrell man has been said to be have revived by a powerful elf named Polokus...they are going to talk to him.

Traveling through the mountains cuases 3 rolls on the random chart per day (morn,noon,night) at 25% chance to meet wandering things, and to add to the danger, once per day any who do not have mountain climbing skills must make a % roll with a 5% chance of a critial climbing accident once per day...

17 days of mountain climbing to get back to the flat lands of the forests...

around the 3rd day they encounter a band of wandering ogers, 7 of them...They introduce themselvs upon both parties surprising each other (both rolled a 1), they use their CHR to calm the shocked beasts and begin parlay.
The ogers are from the Bhad lands, down south, Wem country. The Wemic fighter is very ready for battle since both races are at war down south. But this is thousands of miles north, and such wars are not here.
The crude explain they are here to recruit crude under the name of a a inteligent troll (there has never been an inteligent troll in any game I have ever run) named Gaydolf Shitler...he is orginizing a "group" of crude races for reasons unsaid (cant be good). the party learn that this Gaydolf guy is orginizing a racist army of orks, kobolds, bugbears, giants etc- all crude races to band agianst the finer genentical races of the land that opress the crude...

sounds like nazis man.,..uh o.

So the red headed fighter (evil pc, Turkish is the name) just snaps and swings at the parlaying crude...the ogers are angered and shocked to be jumped. The party is shocked Turkish took the librity to attack 7 ogers that seemed to have been swayed by CHR rolls enough to leave with no battle...Battle begins.

By the end of the battle the ogers die...one by one, to magic weapons carried by the two ex-pirates, earned in prior games through much adventuring...the mage (lower level and weak) gets crushed but dosnt die...just knocked out. The rest of the party gets whupped up really bad, but they survive....bnut Turkish, by the last round vs two ogers, gets two critical hits on him
Two 20s in a row!!! same round! the crowd goes wild!!!

He leaves with a crippling break of the shoulder, no movment, no attacks...he is delivered a wound that in this world (a world with no clerics recorded in any human history) that is considered the "death wound"...meaing if he survives, he will surly be banished to house cleaning, or desk work for life...he is a gimp now.

But they know of one cleric that lives with the elvs, and she is friendly to them for the most part. they once helped her greatly in the past, but she lives deep in the hart of Lhost-wood, and there are elves hunting them- so they assume- for prior crimes in thhose woods.

If they can get out of the mountains alive, dragging Turkish SOMEHOW, and get to the woods, the Human fighter (not turkish...Vinny) has an item that could summon the elven woman...Whinnishee.

With some help from the female PC mage, they construct a working transport for the wounded Turkish who moans in pain, and they begin to move on forward....slower, adding 5 more days to the travel through Stonehold...

To be Cont.

With Turkish, the red headed human fighter down and crippled, weighing roughly 230lbs naked, along with his hoad of treasure and armor/weapons- being carried by the Wemic warrior and the strapping young ex-pirate, the group slumped away towards the forest.

The ogers were dead, and they earned the serious wounds to prov it. The travel westward resulted in a few chance meetings with local tribe's men from the Hewho tribes of the area. the party had helped the Hewhos lately, and earned the guide of a local ranger for the rest of the trip through Stonehold.

The ranger reduced the random encounter chances to 5% instead of 25% (best reason to travel with a ranger in any of my realms). they reached the forests of Lhost, home to the elvs.

Entering the forest, they leave the Hewhos with wishes of good fortune and bonded friendship. Once in the forest, Vinny the human pulls out his stolen staff of the Windago.

"Windago staff: In Qwom, over 1000 years ago, 12 staffs of great power were created with a mixure of divine and terrestrial magics. The staff allows cureing of light wounds 5 per day (id8) by touch, and can ressurect 2 times per day. The items belong only in the hands of the rightful wood's owner. The owner of the woods should be the only 'elf'to carry such an artifact...It is truly the greatest item any elf can be trusted with by god and king. But above all, it allows its user and his companions to travel any length of forest in any one step of the foot. The staff allows short cutting through physical space within all the elven lands"

So Vinny removes his Windago staff that he stole from these very woods less then 4 months ago...resulting in a fight that fell 4 elves who dared tried to stop them from leaving with stolen elven treasure as great as a Windago Staff.

A random encounter strikes!

Rolled it is a female wild elf from far south. Her name Amrah'leetanya, she is tattooed and has dreds. She is wild and has a way about her that screams "thief" class, but you dont really know, since she radiates a certain goodness.

She points out the staff as Vinny tries to explain some reason why he has it, he stumbles and studders...

raising her hand and rolling her eyes, she says
"Its only an Item...and since god made it, god must want you to have it..."

They are baffled by the easy nature of this elf, and how she always seems to be light hearted and smiles no matter the current situation. She points out Turkishes wound, and says-

"yknow...I know a place to get that fixed"

The mage protests and says (with her 18 int) there is no way you, an elf of whatever nature, has connection with divine forces strong enough to heal these wounds...your full of S%%T!"

The elf insists she knows a tree that heals all wounds. Last time they met Amrah she knew a tree that would give a perminate +1 to their weapons so they could damage an evil demon they hunted months ago...a thing called a Whight, an undead perversion of evil. In the weirdest time, this elf arrived to enchant their weaponms with a local tree that allowed the weapons to harm the wight.

Vinny speaks- "this aint that same tree, right?"

The elf assures them the tree is not the same tree, and that even the entire race dosnt know of these two magical trees. That she and she alone knows where they are, and that if she didnt help them, no one would be able to produce the divine level of magic needed to regrow and mend so much bone.

Turkish asks...whats the deal? What you want in return?

She asks for all his guns. Turkish has aquired magic guns from bountyhunters sent from the human lands. The hunters were sent to kill Turkish and Vinny, the Wemic and the Mage were not part of the story back then. But with a bloody fight, and alot of shots through the air and skin, the guns ended up in the hands of the ex-pirates...and the bountyhunters were left to rot on a snowy mountain type...graves forever lost and unmarked.

The elf points out that evil magics were used to enchant those guns, and being an elf, she didnt want them guns fireing at things of her woods. Turkish thinks about it. Should he give up his 5 rifles and 4 pistols, magically enchanted fire arms, for the regrowth of his arm and shoulder?

The party screams "DO IT! DONT BE STUPID!!!"

They know if this tree exsists, its the first thing they ever witnessed in this world with that high of clerical power to regenerate damaged flesh of this severity.

They are right...

Turkish mulls this over, his evil shines through his broken smile. He decides to keep the enchanted rifles, pointing out that they are high powered and can drop a giant. He assumes much battle will accure in his future...he chooses his weaponms over his physical health...She looks sad.

The little elf agrees to leave them alone and says she wont alert the local elven police, but she also warns them that they dont wish to be captured or found. And that the guard is in the random list if they so choose to embark on the journy to the gold city...to see Hadabra.

They share a few nice words then depart. When she leaves the mage says

"yknow, ever think that girl might not be a real elf?"

So, the human with the elven staff uses it to create a short cut to the mythical Gold City (humans have written about it, but it comes off more as a tale for children then factual accounts). The party visited the city once before, finding one Gnome (the care taker) who can turn anything he touches to gold (an old NPC who got lost many campaigns ago, has found himself trapped in the warped world of Qwom, a golden boy named Goldnokio (the gnomes magically created, intelligent fake-son)and a Wizard named Hadabra (an old mongrell man with disgusting features, who was there in the creation steps of Qwom over 10,000 years ago, now hiding in the lost city of gold).

They return to find Hadabra still angry over the fact that the players killed him a few games ago. But the elves used the Windago staff to ressurect him (in Qwom's forests, death isnt that bad as long as the elves like you). They get to his home (a large abandoned meeting hall once used for the citizens of this city to meet and disscuss political ventures and town affairs). Now the city is empty cept for the Gnome, his son and the twisted freekish wizard Hadabra.

The city is patroled at all times by golden gollums (same as iron gollum with one less hit die, and a armor class worse by 2 becuase of gold's softness). There are ten in the city, but they are only on a random list usually. Since Hadabra's death and recent return, he has posistioned 4 of them inside his hall, waiting to strike on each side of the door to attack the second somone enters. the gollums can only accpet 5 word orders (my gollums are only allowed a certain amount of wording for orders, the higher the caster who made it the more words can be issued. 1 word per 2 levels of maker). They walk to the doors and they open magically, offering a darkness that sends shivers up the spine of the Mage.

The party waits and begins to debate this.

Vinny: Ummmm...I dunno if this was a good idea.

Lotus (the mage): So wait...you killed this powerful wizard, and now you return to demand information? And your doing this why?

Turkish: Look, if he tries anything (clicks his pistol) we just kill em again and let the elves bring the guy back again.

Lotus: You just cant kill whatever you want murder inteligent spell casters, and just leave them to be ressurected by the fey folk!!! Thats fricken evil!

Turkish: Good, bad, Im the guy with the gun.

Vinny: No shes right...perhaps she should go in alone. She didnt kill him, he never even met her before...shes smarter then the rest of us, a spell caster, and shes hot...you should go in there and work em over with your "womanly powers"

Lotus: (growling her words). Yknow, the lotus dosnt enjoy being used. You will regret this somday.

Vinny: Look, just go in, ask the guy where our crew is and tell him that if he dosnt give us back our men, that we will destroy him again, and this time burn his ashes.

Lotus: Ummm...yeah. Look, stay out here, ill go inside. We are both magi, we will have things to disscuss.

The mage enters the building and Hadabra meets with her. He is impressed with her level (5th semester), and decides to start shop talk. The disscuss magics and studies of weird effects of Qwom. they touch on the subject of Qwom being unstable.

Hadabra finds that Lotus knows the secret..this land is a magical construct, not a god made land. that all life in Qwom is man made, not much different then a gollum or doppleganger. All the races are simply shaped magical clay, living a lie, unknowing to the fact that their orgins lie with a mad wizard who made them all thousands of years ago.

Lotus asks questions that lead Hadabra to explain that though the land was made by magics, no mortal could create a real world that works the way god intended. No scholor knows enough about the secret nature of nature. No mage of any level of study could produce a artifical realm that went by the natrual law of a real world.

Hadabra then points out the time-flux problems, the earth quakes, the sun that flickers every so often through the months, the stars that dissipear all to often, or blink on and off. How a traveler at times could leave for the store at age 20, and return an hour later and have aged 5 years strangly. Hadabra points out this is due to "lack of upkeep"

Lotus learns that though a wizard of amazing level did find a way to make a living world. it was mostly based in the realm of mechanical workings. The mage who made Qwom was also noted for being a mechanical genious, able to contruct complext mechanical structures (clocks, puppets, steam engines, etc etc). And that the land they stood on now is infact ran by a billion working systems of mechanical design underneath the ground, many miles down.

Hadabra then brings up the know situation of the dwarves up north. The dwarves of stonehold once numbered in the tens of thousands, but due to a horrible event in history, 95% of all dwarves died in an accident of epic perportions. He then reminds the Lotus that any mechanical systems needs workers to maintain the system. You need many workers who will work long hours, underground, year after year...

Lotus guesses that the dwarves were the workers of Qwom's underground mechanical systems...hadabra nods to show she is correct.

Lotus: how many dwarves are needed to maintain the system?

Hadabra: 20-30 thousand workers, round clock...

Lotus: How many are working on it now?

Hadabra: 150...all they can spear.

Lotus: Oh s%%T.

Days are fast forwarded as the rest of the party relaxes in the reflective golden city sun. They hunt the outskirts of the city and camp close by, while the Mage speaks and studies with the twisted Hadabra.

Inside hadabra's chambers Lotus of lawful evil alignment learns that the entire realm was created by magic, and though it appears real, its under belly and inner workings are all mechanical in nature...magic yes, but cogs and gears and giant mechinisms that span the entire planet's underdark.

The mage learns that since the death of 90% of all the dwarve, over 400 years ago, the world hasnt had the proper tune ups and fixes it needs to operate smooothly. The dwarves used to maintain the world, and now there was not enough workers left to keep things stable...

Then hadabra tells Lotus of a main chamber, an underground facility chamber that is the main work station of the entire island's working systems. The "brain" if you will. He continues to say that an elf had hijacked the chamber from the original owner who was sapossed to run the project for eternity (another mongrell man named Fweezel). Fweezel had escaped his duty , leaving it up to an elf named Ahloombulay (who is notpart of the project) incharge of all the buttons, controls and levers of the facility.

hadabra points out in a chilling voice

"the elf is aligned with the powers of good...making him unsuitable for the job. He contantly refuses orders I give him, things that nature must do but no "good" man could stomach.."

Lotus asks what kind of things? but the freek says its top secret.

Lotus then offers to go to the facility down south, and confront the elf who hijacked this important facility that controls all working systems of Qwom's nature. Lotus swore she would stop the "good" elf, anyway she "needed" to...and that from there she will control the facility.

As a DM i asked if this ment Lotus planned to retire an NPC as the "operator of Qwom", and the player answered me-

"Yes. Lotus is lawful evil, and what better job then to operate Qwom by having control over its working systems"

I then pointed out that the facility was a lonely job of pressing buttons and keeping nature balanced...and "lawful evil" wasnt a good alignment for "nature" of any type...

The player answered

"oh well...Qwoms gunna be a whoooole lot different when I become Mother Nature"

This is a quick catch up to where we are now. It is now Thursday, and we await our next game to see if Lotus actually kills the elf (the elf is well respected among the elvin nation), and if the rest of the party allows it...

Im also curious on if they even get close to the facility...its months away and threw two forests that they know are dangerous to non-fey folk. well..i guess I'll see when we play...